Oswego County bidding procedures challenged again

Questions were once again raised about the change of the bidding procedures currently used by Oswego County at Monday’s meeting of the Strategic Planning and Government legislative committee.

Christopher Gosek

Questions were once again raised about the change of the bidding procedures currently used by Oswego County at Monday’s meeting of the Strategic Planning and Government legislative committee.

Minority leader Michael Kunzwiler, D-Oswego, has been a vocal opponent of the current bidding process in the past few months, pointing at an appearance of impropriety in bids handed out to corporations that are large financial contributors to local political parties. At Monday’s meeting, Kunzwiler made a motion to cap the amount of money that a bidding entity could donate to a political party and remain eligible for a contract. This motion was rescinded, however, after some discussion. It was decided that the motion could not be made until the county attorney coudl conduct further research to ensure the legality of such a policy change.

Committee chairman James Bryant,R-Constantia, felt that Kunzwiler’s motion “probably won’t go anywhere.” He said there are no similar limits set on the state or federal level.

Majority leader Barry Leemann agreed, “It doesn’t appear that it would even be legal to try to enforce such a law or to even get involved in such an issue. Considering we buy off of the low bid, what difference does it make if someone contributes a hundred or two hundred dollars to any of the political parties. To me, the whole idea doesn’t seem to have much merit.”

Kunzwiler, however, stood by his suggestion. “State and federal level governments have been looking closely at financial contributors, so my thinking here is why not set the right example here if its something we can legally do?” he said. “Like I’ve said before, whether these bidding procedures are illegal or not, you cannot deny the appearance of impropriety that is there.”

Another motion brought to the committee was also rescinded until it can be further researched. Doug Malone, D-Oswego Town, suggested that there be a mandatory two year waiting period implemented for outgoing legislators before they could even be considered for employemnt by the county. Bryant, R-Constantia also weighed in on this proposal, noting, “there may be an issue with discrimination in regards to passing such a motion. The basic rights of the constitution allows you to be gamefully employed, so again, this probably won’t get too far.” Leemann, R-Amboy didn’t see this motion getting too far either, but he did think that looking into it was worthwhile. “I’m not sure how you could pass a law that goes against another law, but we do plan on researching this issue to possibly do something in regards to our ethics policy with it.” He also added that there are numerous county positions that are appointed that he did not think could be restricted.

The committee also unanimously voted (with the exception of one absence) to reappointment Richard Mitchell to the position of County Attorney. This position will be voted upon at the first meeting of the 2008 Legislature, tentatively scheduled for January 3. There was a question raised in regards to this reappointment though, as Leemann inquired about the possibility of changing the term length from its current two-year appointment, to an annual decision. He explained in asking about the change, “it was just something that had been brought up to me. There was certainly not a strong push to change the term limit. After hearing the regulations that are in place, I don’t think that this is something we could change without making it an interim position, but again, I don’t see a real strong feeling towards doing this.” It was noted that the question of legally making such a move was posed to Mitchell at the meeting, but considering it was his name being considered, he felt it was best that he give the committee the rules and regulations and allow them to draw a conclusion from there, as opposed to legally advising them one way or another.

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